Showing titles in Technology & Society

To be human in today’s world means that you engage in constant linguistic interactions with some form of technology, from your smart phone to your refrigerator. That’s not as new a trend as you might think. Language has shaped - and been shaped by - some of our world’s most significant communication technologies. Our current language bears the marks of millennia of interaction between humans and our technologies, beginning with the very first primitive writing systems and moving into the age of the printing press, the telegraph, and the typewriter.

Brought to you by Penguin. An instant NEW YORK TIMES bestseller ** A Guardian biggest book of the autumn ** AI is the greatest threat to our existence that we have ever faced. The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction – but it’s not too late to change course...

Digital technology definitely shapes us. But once we learn how it does so, we can make good decisions for our ourselves and our children.

Desde mediados de la década de 2000, la inteligencia artificial (IA) se ha expandido a gran velocidad a nivel mundial, como campo académico y como industria. Pero ¿es posible crear inteligencia? ¿Cómo son los sistemas de IA que se desarrollan a escala planetaria? ¿Qué tipos de políticas están contenidas en el modo en que esos sistemas cartografían e interpretan el mundo? ¿Cuáles son las consecuencias de incluir la IA en los sistemas de toma de decisiones en los lugares de trabajo, la educación, la salud, las finanzas, la justicia y el gobierno?

Dive into the pulsating heart of tomorrow's world with Digital Odyssey: Navigating the Future of Innovation. This insightful guide plunges listeners into the whirlwind of groundbreaking technology that is reshaping our reality. From the rise of artificial intelligence and blockchain to the future of 5G and beyond, this book serves as a compass for those eager to explore the uncharted territories of innovation. Penned by leading tech experts, it blends profound analysis with captivating narratives, making complex concepts accessible to both tech aficionados and novices.

With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world—from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change—and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds.

We often think of AI in terms of futuristic robots with glowing eyes or walking, talking machines that look and act like humans. That’s the image many movies and books give us, and while that vision is fascinating, it’s only a tiny slice of what AI actually is. In real life, AI is less about building androids and more about designing systems that can learn, reason, and adapt—traits we usually associate with human intelligence. It’s about creating software and machines that can recognize patterns, make decisions, and even improve themselves over time through experience.

Brought to you by Penguin. Those who understand how AI thinks are about to win big. We are used to thinking of computers as being a step up from calculators - very good at storing information, and maybe even at playing a logical game like chess. But up to now they haven't been able to think in...

"In Viral Voices, Carmine Gallo delivers a powerful roadmap for today's communicators."—Matt Abrahams, Lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and host of the Think Fast Talk Smart podcast "An accessible roadmap for anyone needing to get their message across successfully... This is...

What will it take to restore balance to our world, repair past injustices, and support future generations' survival? Looking deeply into the web of life that created and supports us, and drawing inspiration from diverse cultural traditions and perspectives, spirited thinkers Michael Pawlyn and Sarah Ichioka propose a bold set of regenerative principles with potential to transform how we design, make, and manage our buildings; infrastructure; and communities.

In contrast to the wave of noisy polemics around AI, AI For Good explores how, in practice, it can actually improve our lives and tells the stories of everyday citizens at the forefront of this new “AI entrepreneurship.” AI is often framed as a force of radical transformation, either...

Do you feel like everyone got the artificial intelligence memo except you? Wanjiku Kamau did too. Six months before recording this audiobook, she was sitting in the Sacramento airport, frantically searching “What is ChatGPT?” while her dog Champ sighed beside her. After twenty years in tech at Siemens, Intel, and Google, she suddenly realized the world had changed around her. Everyone was speaking a new language. And she was still the woman who clung to her BlackBerry until 2013.

As both individuals and communities, we have a choice. We can struggle through the onslaught of information and play an eternal game of catch-up. Or we can choose to live in the present: favor eye contact over texting; quality over speed; and human quirks over digital perfection. Rushkoff offers hope for anyone seeking to transcend the false now.

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2024 ONE OF THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW SCIENTIST BEST SCIENCE BOOKS OF THE YEAR GUARDIAN BEST SCIENCE AND NATURE BOOK 2024 A HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST RELATED WORK 2024 THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER From the...

Few of us give much thought to computer code or how it comes to be. The very word “code” makes it sound immutable or even inevitable. “You Are Not Expected to Understand This” demonstrates that, far from being preordained, computer code is the result of very human decisions, ones we all live with when we use social media, take photos, drive our cars, and engage in a host of other activities.

When Pete Etchells was 13, his father died from motor neurone disease. In order to cope, he immersed himself in a virtual world - first as an escape, but later to try to understand what had happened. Etchells is now a researcher into the psychological effects of video games, and was co-author on a recent paper explaining why WHO plans to classify "game addiction" as a danger to public health are based on bad science and (he thinks) are a bad idea. In this, his first book, he journeys through the history and development of video games via scientific study....

President Joe Biden has repeatedly said that the United States would close the digital divide under his leadership. However, the divide still affects people and communities across the country. The complex and persistent reality is that millions of residents live in digital deserts, and many more face disproportionate difficulties when it comes to getting and staying online, especially people of color, seniors, rural residents, and farmers in remote areas. Economic and health disparities are worsening in rural communities without available internet access.

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, what will they say was the most crucial development in the first few years of the twenty-first century? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations?

A powerful investigation into the chances for humanity's future from the author of the bestseller The World Without Us. In his bestselling book The World Without Us, Alan Weisman considered how the Earth could heal and even refill empty niches if relieved of humanity's constant pressures. Behind...

As the host of The Michael Brooks Show and cohost of the Majority Report, Brooks was a progressive fighter whose work brought people together from around the world. In this, his first book, he lets his understanding of the digital media environment direct his analysis of the "conservative rebels" who had taken YouTube by storm in 2018. Brooks provides a theoretically rigorous but accessible critique of the most prominent "renegades," including Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Brett Weinstein while also examining the social, political, and media environment that such rebels thrive in.